Update.

I have taken up residence in Limbo here for a while. Just thought I would let you all know I am ok. Should have some good news to tell you all soon. Watch this space!

Keep up all the good blogging.

They don't sell postcards in Limbo!

They don't sell them honestly! If they did I would send you all one. You will have to settle for a post instead.

Being in Limbo isn't all bad, just a bit scary, a kind of inbetweeny land. In a funny way I can put up with being here for a short while, I am looking forward to my "new chapter" its just taking a while to turn the page! None of my doing either, like everything else, the more impatient you are to get things sorted, the more things stand in your way!

I am so looking forward to getting my life back on track, getting my teeth stuck in to my life afloat again, making whatever boat I end up on, my own. I have lots of new things I want to try in my new abode.

I am looking at the hundreds of boats for sale on the many sites, and finding it quite mind boggling! There are so many out there! Many gorgeous ones that are way out of my price range, but also quite a few that I could possibly manage to buy. I have a good imagination, I can visualise how nice the interior of a boat could look with a bit of hard work, just as well really as some of the boats are awful! Even Bobby my dog would turn his nose up at them!

My main priority is making sure I get one that has a sound hull, the inside I can work on over time to make it a cosy home. Quite looking forward to that!

What I can't get over is the state some of the boats are in. You would think that if people wanted to sell their boat they would at least tidy up before they took the photo for the advert! One such boat which will remain nameless, made me gasp when I saw the photo, you couldn't see any space on any of the surfaces, probably under all the mess there was a nice boat lurking, I am sure many people would just bypass the boat and go on to the next advert!

Anyway, I would be grateful if anybody knows of any reasonably priced boats out there I would be very interested to hear from you.

In the meantime I will try and enjoy my stay in Limbo, Wish you were here and I wasn't!

I am confident it wont be forever, but I have to say it doesn't surprise me that Limbo isn't listed on any maps, you wouldn't visit here through choice!!

Even here my glass is very much half full!

Nice Surprise!

I had a really nice surprise yesterday, a visit from Nb Cosy Toes, ( love that name ) and her crew. They were on  their way back from a trip through to Liverpool.

 

They had a great time, and really enjoyed the experience.  Sue Kindly showed me around Cosy Toes, she is a lovely little boat, immaculate and a credit to them all. It was great to meet them all, and I look forward to seeing  them all again.

Sue made me a cup of coffee, and then we came on board the boat I am staying on at the moment. We had a good old natter, then they headed off to catch up to Sue’s parents. They had gone on ahead on their boat, Cheshire Lad.

Cosy Toes had just pulled away when I noticed Sue had left her coffee mug on my boat! It will be a good excuse to go and see them to return the mug. In the meantime Sue, just so you know how your mug is doing……………..

                        Not a happy Mug!

            In fact he has threatened to report you to,

                 The Cruelty to Crockery Association!

An after thought!

Well I think I have mastered "Live Writer" its easier to upload photos and put them where you want them, ( kinda...)! I put a picture of Tickety Boo's Galley as it is now. I have now decided its not a nice photo. Soooo here is one I like better!

  Finally managed to get on Live Writer!

Well hopefully Heth on WB Takey Tezey, will be proud of me as I think I have finally worked out how to use Windows Live writer! It has only taken me a couple of months to work it out!

To be fair, I did try some months back only to give up, exasparated with myself, but now, here we are!

This post is just an experiment really to see how it all works. Apparently writing your blog with Live writer makes things a lot easier. When then does it get easier I ask myself.

Now that Tickety Boo is up for sale I think it would be a shame to let her go without letting you all see what I have been blogging about!

So now I will attempt to get some photos on here to show you.                                                                                                                                  Tickety being moved to the boatyard we rented, after our original builders went Bankrupt.

                                                                                                                                     

   Me adding last minute touches, before the boat was transported to her mooring.

 

 

 My Brother, John, driving the lorry taking the boat to the cut!

 

               

 

 

 

At last Tickety on the cut where she belonged!

 

 

             

This is what we were left with, after paying for a fully fitted boat. At least we now had the windows and doors fitted.

 

 

My Brother John, without him we would have been well and truly lost. He did all the plumbing and electrics, fitted the windows, the fire, central heating and numerous other things!

 

 

 The two John’s working in the Bedroom While the bedroom was being fitted, we slept on a blow up bed in the Saloon.

                         

                                                    The Bedroom as it is now, after sleeping on a blow up bed for months, it was bliss to get  into a proper bed!

 

Things were beginning to take shape slowly. Tickety was starting to look like the boat I had dreamed of.

            

                                       

From this empty shell, sitting on deckchairs…..

                                          To this,our cosy home!

  From this half finished kitchen, with the two ring camping stove …

 

 

                                        

                                                 

      To my “ Galley Slave” Kitchen!                                                                                                      

New Beginnings.

Well I did say I would be back! God I have missed blogging.

The break up of a relationship is never easy, I feel like I have been dragged through a hedge backwards! You tend to go through many phases, anger, sadness, loneliness and at a total loss as to where it all went wrong.

There is one thing I am certain of, there will be no going back. Too many things have been said and done to hurt me, things I will never be able to forgive, and that makes me so sad. I thought I had found my soul mate, but obviously I was so wrong.

Well that's enough of that. As I have done before, I have decided self pity and recriminations never helped any body. Even though this episode of my life has left me sad and confused, wallowing in self pity is pointless.

My way of life won't change, living on a narrow boat is my passion. I have been staying at my Mums in her bungalow, where I was made welcome and more than comfortable, but being back on land and ensconced in bricks and mortar fills me with horror!

For me to stay on Tickety Boo was out of the question. We did come to an agreement that we would each have alternate weeks on the boat, until she is sold, but devastatingly for me John went back on his word.

I think that's enough of washing my dirty linen in public!

I had heard rumour that somebody on our mooring was maybe selling a boat, when I enquired about it the owner very kindly said I could stay on their boat for a couple of months, how thoughtful was that? I will always be truly grateful for this opportunity, as its got me back on the cut where I belong!

The boat is slightly smaller than Tickety, and yes I am missing her, but this little boat is really nice, and I may even consider buying her myself.

I have moved on T.F.T.T.M., I wont divulge the name just yet, maybe later. I bet those initials will have you guessing! Answers in the post please!

I moved on the boat on the first of August, new month, new start! I spent all of the first day cleaning, not that the boat was in a bad way, it just hadn't been used for months. Most of my time was spent evicting the many spiders that had taken up undisturbed residence! Once all moved in, tidy and organised I sat with a well earned cuppa, and reflected on how lucky I was in the circumstances, to be once again afloat! Thank you so very much to P and C for the very very kind gesture of letting me stay on their boat.

Bobby is settling in well and has just accepted we are on a different boat. I am so grateful to have him with me and hope and pray that it stays that way. He is my little soul mate now, and I would be heartbroken to lose him.

Tickety Boo is sadly now up for sale. After all we went through to get her to this stage. I would like to think I could buy John out, but don't know if that will be possible just yet, either way I will still be living afloat, whether on Tickety Boo, T.F.T.T.M or some other boat!

When I started this blog a couple of months ago I wrote that I wanted to share my happy, sometimes sad stories with you, this chapter is rather sad but happier times hopefully are on the horizon. Goodness knows what my blog will be called, if I some how manage to keep Tickety Boo the name will stay the same, if I can't your guess is as good as mine!

This is the first post of my new life, I hope you will continue on the journey with me, knowing me it will be a bumpy ride! Hold on tight!

Another one of lifes challenges.

Without going into too much detail, my life has been turned on its head, and had the living daylights shook out of it! Not for the first time either. Some people have a sedate, "Merry Go Round" life, where I have a bloody,"Roller Coaster" life. Even after the ups and downs and the heartache, I couldn't ever have imagined choosing the Merry Go Round, so now I have to accept I chose the rougher ride.

Us Boaters are made of stern stuff I have faith that I will get through this bad patch, and once I get my head from out of my backside I will be fine, its quite dark up here but its getting lighter by the day!

I may not blog as much over the coming weeks, but believe me I will be following all your blogs and as Arnie said, "I will be back "...

Please keep up the good work. I hope to be back soon to share a brand new chapter of my life with you, Happy Boating!

Much needed Tonic!

I have been having problems of late that have really been getting me down. I have reached a turning point in my life, but not quite sure which path to follow. Any way needless to say I haven't really had much reason to smile, until that is I got my Tonic!

We have a great couple next to us on our mooring, they shall remain nameless but they read this blog, and they know who they are. Feeling really down yesterday and not feeling much like company, I was just pottering about when said neighbours turned up. Within minutes of them arriving I cheered up, they had me laughing at their antics, if they could bottle whatever it is they have, they would be millionaires!

The first thing that literally had me splitting my sides with laughter, was when Mrs Neighbour, passed me a cuppa out the side hatch and said she would come out and have a natter with me. I was already sitting outside, so watched her stepping off the back of their boat. I still don't know how she did it but she fell out the boat backwards, she then seemed to roll in slow motion on to the bank!. Well by this time I was laughing myself silly. Bless her, I was laughing so much I couldn't even ask if she was ok! Luckily she was fine, but the incident had me giggling all afternoon!

The second thing that had me laughing was when Mr Neighbour decided to take their two little Dogs for a walk, two gorgeous little Shitzu's. Mr Neighbour wears a straw hat on account of the sun, I commented that he looked like a french man with his hat on, he then started to talk with a french accent which really made him look french!

So without even realising it my neighbours had cheered me up no end!

Later that evening Mrs Neighbour had told me about Skype, you can download it and make free calls to other people who have Skype, I have heard of it but didn't realise just how good it was, not only can you call people you can see them too with web cam, brilliant! So after a quick run through of how to use Skype I downloaded it and made my first call to Mrs Neighbour. It was great I could see her, and hear her really well, only one problem, she couldn't see or hear me! So for the umpteenth time that day I was left screaming with laughter. I could see Mr and Mrs quite clearly looking into the web cam and saying over and over, " can you here me, are you there", and then having a conversation between themselves about me not being there! In actual fact I was still there but they couldn't see me! I then watched Mrs getting fed up and making a cup of tea!

We have vowed to try again later, so no doubt more laughter in store!

So just one more thing to say, A HUGE BIG THANKYOU to my fab neighbours for pulling me out of the doldrums, you two were just the tonic I needed!